Do-it-yourself housebuilding pilot announced

Local people building their own homes on small, under-used council sites has taken a step closer to becoming a reality with the announcement of a pilot scheme.

Wandsworth
Council’s Executive has approved plans that will give local residents the
opportunity to build their own home on a small site at Whitlock Drive, near Southfields.

Successful applicants would have the opportunity to take on one of three houses
that it is proposed to be built there, which is currently occupied by old
garages.

Wandsworth is one of the first councils in inner London to
identify a site for a self-build initiative, similar to ones set up by
Islington and Enfield councils, while the Greater London Authority is establishing
a team to provide advice to applicants and local authorities.

The report also sets out how the council will meet the
requirements of the Government’s Self-build and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015, including providing
advice to those who might wish to register an interest in building their own
home.

Self-build
can take a number of forms, including fitting out a property that is developed
to a ‘shell and core’ state, which is what the council proposes, or residents
taking on the design and construction themselves, for example by employing an
architect and builder directly. Any such self-build is exempt from the
Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) usually charged on new developments.

Cllr Clare Salier, Cabinet Member for Housing, said: “Wandsworth
has a long history of pioneering housing initiatives, such as Right to Buy, and
again we are out in front among the first local authorities to pilot
resident-led housebuilding in London.

"It was good to see that this initiative
has cross-party support - Wandsworth needs more homes, particularly for working
households vital to the local economy and to local services, and this is one of
several ways the council is ensuring more are built.”

Wandsworth’s pioneering Hidden
Homes programme has built more than 250 new council homes on under-used
sites such as vacant garages, making use of 100 per cent of proceeds from Right
to Buy sales of council homes, and the scheme has since been copied by other
local authorities

Construction is under way in Battersea on 57
new Hidden Homes with hundreds more on the way at sites across the borough

More than 3,000 new homes for shared ownership, social
renting, low cost rent, market rent and for sale are to be built by the council
and partners at two major estate regeneration schemes in Battersea and
Roehampton which guarantee newly built homes for all secure council tenants,
leaseholders and freeholders on their estates

The council’s housing strategy target is to ensure a minimum
of 18,000
homes are built in Wandsworth during the next ten years